Roxanne Donnery protests Kiryas Joel pipeline

Wednesday

Apr 10, 2013 at 6:36 PMApr 10, 2013 at 6:47 PM

MONROE — Orange County Legislator Roxanne Donnery parked her Audi in front of the advancing Kiryas Joel pipeline Wednesday morning, commencing a daylong standoff that slowed construction and brought her and Woodbury Supervisor John Burke perilously close to getting arrested.The confrontation took place on Seven Springs Mountain Road as contractors dug up the roadside and lowered one-ton sections of pipe into the ground, the initial stage of a pipeline expected to stretch 13.5 miles and tap New York City's Catskill Aqueduct in New Windsor.Donnery, a Highland Falls Democrat who represents part of neighboring Woodbury and has long opposed the project, came seeking enforcement of a resolution lawmakers passed on Friday to halt work along the county road. She and Burke, who soon joined her, parked in front of a line of 18-foot-long pipes, preventing other pieces from being delivered.The county already had authorized the road work, but Donnery, Burke and lawmakers who supported Donnery's resolution on Friday want the county to suspend its permit until a new issue involving a potential conflict with Woodbury wells has been resolved.“Just stop it for a minute,” Donnery argued at the construction site on Wednesday. “Once we know if Woodbury's water is safe, then so be it.”State Assemblyman James Skoufis, a Woodbury Democrat also at the scene, told the state troopers who spoke with the group there, “It's the county executive's job to enforce the law. He's just not doing it.”